Author
Topic: Grammar quirks (Read 168770 times)

It is not a pant. A pant is only one part of it, hence why it is called a pair of pants. A pant is just one side, so please do not insist on finding me a pant that fits my shape as I want a pair of them sewn together. I realize this is big in the garment/fashion industry and that only bothers me more because it seems to me that it came about to make those saying it feel more refined. This may not be the case, they may have always called it a pant but it is only leaking out of the fashion/garment world recently, but that is still how I interpret it. I also just think it sounds stupid.

Two of my real biggies: "He gots a apple." I've stomped on my kids and grandkids any time I hear one or the other. My girls were quick to understand, but the grandsons were much more stubborn about it.

We're still working on when one uses "Bob and I" vs. "Bob and me."

I’ve lost count of the times we’ve corrected our 7 year old nephew from saying "Her wants the doll" or "Her wants to go get pizza with us too" when referencing his sister (or a woman). "She" just won’t sink in. I hope maybe his new teacher can get the point across.

To be fair, sometimes people have autocorrect on their phones, and it messes up what they were intending to say. And I know I've made a mistake or two on here when I thought I was free of spelling mistakes and I actually wasn't.

Logged

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends" - Harry Potter

Separate was another favorite of my English professor's words - not seperate, aggh.

My freshman English teacher was a fan of "Separate. It has 'a rat' in it. And you’d want to separate a rat from you, right?"

Depends -- some people have pet rats, and love them dearly ...

Another remembering-device for "separate" which I've come across, goes: "Se and Rate were fighting; their Pa came in and separated them." (That, for me, is one of the kind re which it would seem simpler just to remember the information itself; but people's mileages vary.)

I agree. But I know some things like that do work, or you end up remembering them as they’re crammed into your head.

For instance, I can’t write onomatopoeia without my brain saying "O, no ma! To poe I a!" because said English teacher also drilled that into us.

I've always been amused that onomatopoeia isn't spelled exactly as it sounds.

I dunno..... I guess I could pour my milk over it, if I really wanted to.

That's the most brilliantly worded ad I've ever read! I... wait, this IS for proofreaders, right?

That reminds me, actually - I went to a presentation a few years back aimed at writers. The presenter announced at the beginning that there was at least one error in the handout and anyone who found it got a piece of candy. Seemed like a great way to cover up having made a typo, to me! Because you just know that if she hadn't said something, everyone would be asking questions afterwards like "Did you know you're missing a question mark on page three?"

I know this isn't technically a grammatical issue, but a pronunciation one. It still makes me crazy.

There is a woman on the Weather Channel that persistently pronounces "Gulf of Mexico" as "GOLF of Mexico". It makes me insane.

Golf is a game. The gulf is the place with lots of water.

The ones in the Baltimore area cannot say "temperature" with all four syllables. They usually slur it to "temchur."

This one is coming up a lot lately because it's an election year in the U.S.: It's So-cial Se-cur-i-ty, people. Six syllables! But over and over again I hear politicians and commentators saying "Sosh-curty," or similar mushmouthed abominations. This isn't a regional pronunciation thing -- *everybody* does it. How hard is it to sound out a two-syllable word and a four-syllable word? And don't get me started on people who ask for your Social Security number with "What's your social?" or worse, "What's your sosh?"

I know this isn't technically a grammatical issue, but a pronunciation one. It still makes me crazy.

There is a woman on the Weather Channel that persistently pronounces "Gulf of Mexico" as "GOLF of Mexico". It makes me insane.

Golf is a game. The gulf is the place with lots of water.

The ones in the Baltimore area cannot say "temperature" with all four syllables. They usually slur it to "temchur."

This one is coming up a lot lately because it's an election year in the U.S.: It's So-cial Se-cur-i-ty, people. Six syllables! But over and over again I hear politicians and commentators saying "Sosh-curty," or similar mushmouthed abominations. This isn't a regional pronunciation thing -- *everybody* does it. How hard is it to sound out a two-syllable word and a four-syllable word? And don't get me started on people who ask for your Social Security number with "What's your social?" or worse, "What's your sosh?"

I don't mind "social" so much, I see it as the same as people refraining from saying "be sure to have you personal identification number handy when using your automated teller card."

I know this isn't technically a grammatical issue, but a pronunciation one. It still makes me crazy.

There is a woman on the Weather Channel that persistently pronounces "Gulf of Mexico" as "GOLF of Mexico". It makes me insane.

Golf is a game. The gulf is the place with lots of water.

The ones in the Baltimore area cannot say "temperature" with all four syllables. They usually slur it to "temchur."

This one is coming up a lot lately because it's an election year in the U.S.: It's So-cial Se-cur-i-ty, people. Six syllables! But over and over again I hear politicians and commentators saying "Sosh-curty," or similar mushmouthed abominations. This isn't a regional pronunciation thing -- *everybody* does it. How hard is it to sound out a two-syllable word and a four-syllable word? And don't get me started on people who ask for your Social Security number with "What's your social?" or worse, "What's your sosh?"

I don't mind "social" so much, I see it as the same as people refraining from saying "be sure to have you personal identification number handy when using your automated teller card."

Instead they say PIN and ATM. Not "have your personal handy when using your automated," which is what "Tell me your social" sounds like to me. Couldn't we call it the SSN instead?